International partners like USAID,
UNICEF, UNDP, JICA, European
Commission, Word Bank, IDB. SDC,
CIDA have been active partners with
ERRA in reconstruction and
rehabilitation of the earthquake
affected areas of AJ&K and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa. A donor conference was
held in ERRA today, where a
comprehensive briefing was given to
the Donors and Sponsors at ERRA HQs.
The conference was largely attended
by over 70 international partners
along with Ambassadors of Saudi
Arabia, Sweden, Oman, Finland and
Bosnia. Country Representatives from
UNDP, Senior Institutional
Development Specialist Raja Rehan
Arshad World Bank, Mr. Shahid Ahmed
Country Representative IDB, Mr.
Deepak Bajracharya Office in charge
and Chief Field Operations UNICEF
and Mr. Rodney Dyer Infrastructure
and Environment Advisor DFID were
among the dignitaries who graced the
occasion. Guests were welcomed by
Deputy Chairman while newly
appointed Chairman ERRA Hamid Yar
Hiraj showing his appreciation for
donors and sponsors looked forward
to future collaboration with
international partners.

Welcoming the guests, Deputy
Chairman ERRA Lt Gen Muhammad Haroon
Aslam thanked Government of
Pakistan, Governments of AJK and KPK,
international partners for their
all-out support for ERRA. Confident
of ERRA’s progress and warm response
of donors and sponsors , Deputy
Chairman ERRA said that though
Pakistan had tough time facing
world’s one of the worst natural
disasters, however, ERRA’s success
story speaks of international
community working hand in hand with
Pakistan. He said that ERRA in its
fifth year is now a specialized
organization which is fully capable
to face any future disaster and ERRA
model can be applied successfully
elsewhere in the world including
reconstruction and rehabilitation of
the flood affected areas
The newly appointed Chairman ERRA
Hamid Yar Hiraj appreciated the
positive role of the donors and
sponsors in reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Pakistan and said
that with one point agenda ERRA is
focused on completing the ongoing
projects within a time line of two
years. Talking to the media Hamid
said that the pace of reconstruction
though had slowed in past due to
paucity of funds, however, with
funds being made available and
political backing of the Government
of Pakistan the speed of work will
gain momentum in coming days.
Answering one of the questions about
old Balakot, the chairman said
people are emotionally attached to
the home land and it is difficult to
relocate people by force, and
expected media to play a positive
role in mass awareness regarding old
Balakot as hazardous land for
concrete building for being situated
on red zone. He also said that in
coming months reconstruction of new
Balakot will pick up as funding and
land issues are being amicably
resolved.

Apprising the multilateral and
bilateral Development Partners of
the progress achieved by ERRA, Chief
of Staff ERRA Brigadier Massoud
Ahmed said that ERRA has achieved
more than 97% progress in Rural
Housing sector, while 6441 projects
have been completed in Urban
Housing, 1581 in education, 4002 in
water and sanitation, 363 in
governance, 142 in environment, 117
in transport and 70 in livelihood.
He said that recent initiatives such
as establishment of Transparency
Cell and ISO Certification beyond
January aim at making ERRA a more
vibrant organization.
Senior Institutional Development
Specialist World Bank Raja Rehan
Arshad, Office Incharge and Chief
Field Operations UNICEF Mr. Deepak
Bajracharya and Country
Representative IDB Mr. Shahid Ahmed
ensured their full support for ERRA
in future and praised it as being a
post-disaster model of excellence
for the world to emulate. The donors
and sponsors showed overall
satisfaction on new management and
its vision and showed confidence on
ERRA strategy to build back better.